CDV and developer Monte Cristo bring us City Life, a new take on the city sim with City Life. As Mr. Wright moves on to managing the galaxy, what are we to do as mere mortals who are probably reaching a bit too far to even imagine ourselves as \"mayoral material?\" The big new hook is a social awareness aspect that makes it necessary to manage neighborhoods and social class to spice up your urban planning fantasies. If you\'re in the mood for another stab at building your metropolis, check out George\'s review here.

Poker is hot right now. Anybody can tell you that. So it\'s no wonder that it has made its way into videogames. In fact, it\'s always been there, being one of the most simple games to program and all. But titles like Stacked with Daniel Negreanu seek to trade on the recent surge in Poker popularity and leverage the latest in gaming technology. Does it work out? Well, we\'ve been trying to guess the review score from looking at Matt\'s stoic face all day long, but we can\'t tell. He\'s that good. Check the review to find out.

White Elephant Games makes indy titles meant for arcade gaming enthusiasts. Their RIP series offers up top-down shooter action with some wacky characters and artwork. The latest in the series is RIP: Strike Back, which adds several new features, including moveable turrets, to the gameplay. How is it? Our man Jason has a review.

The graphic novel has earned itself a standing as an independent art form over the years, and is now moving into the digital realm. Following in the footsteps of the Silent Hill Experience, Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel comes to the PSP under the banner of a new medium. Except, instead of just telling a good story in classic graphic novel form, the developers felt obligated to include uninteresting and tedious gameplay elements into the presentation. The result is promising, but less than perfect. Graphic novel fans should be excited about the potential, but for now the rich promise of digital graphic novels on the PSP remains unrealized.

Capcom\'s Street Fighter is coming once again to the PlayStation 2, but this time in a package containing five classic Street Fighter titles. Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is an all-in-one 2D fighting history lesson. If you\'re XBL-deprived, or just way into your classic fighters, you might want to check this out. Get the full review from Laurie.

Lionhead Studios addressed the lack of special effects in last year\'s The Movies by releasing an expansion pack, The Movies: Stunts and Effects. Installing the new expansion changes very little in the simulation until you\'ve played through the 1960s, but opens up a wide range of options for the machinima community. Budding directors can now control a freely movable camera and place stuntmen into precariously dangerous situations. Stunts and Effects is aimed at gamers who are already invested in The Movies and want to make it better; for everyone else it\'s just a worthy addition that adds yet another group of needy staffers for the player to manage. Check out the full review.

Blending RPG and RTS elements, SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars puts you in command of an army tasked with defending the known world from utter evil. OK, so the innovation doesn\'t exactly carry through to the narrative plot. Regardless, if you love RPGs and you love real-time strategy, then you will likely love SpellForce 2\'s hybrid. From masses of ground forces to aerial assaulting mythological creatures, SpellForce 2 manages to add a little bit of everything without spoiling the soup. Check out Blaine\'s review here.

Turtle Beach brings their Xbox-targeted headphones to a whole new level of quality with the Ear Force X2 Wireless Xbox Headphones. The Ear Force X2 is a (mostly) wireless setup that works very nicely with your Xbox 360 console, providing high quality audio and voice chat in a audiophile quality package. And the X2 headphones deliver the goods for just under a hundred bucks, which makes them a natural choice. We can see why the MLG would license these as the \"official\" headphones of Major League Gaming.

Introversion\'s Darwinia has scored plenty of good press over the past year. With a cult following from its first demo release, the game has gone on to win at the Independent Games Festival. The success has earned Darwinia a download-to-play release on Valve\'s Steam service and, most recently, a boxed retail version published by Cinemaware Marquee, whose stated goal is to bring some of the best overlooked games to retail. We got our latest GF! team member, Jason Perkins, to check it out.

Get your combat boots, helmet and double rations of vodka ready. No, it\'s not another night out on the town with the GF! staff, it\'s Rush for Berlin, the latest WWII strategy game. Stop groaning, it actually isn\'t that bad. Especially after a couple double rations of vodka. Check in with GF!\'s shell-shocked and stodgy wargamer, Sean, for more irreverence and colorful insights than you can shake a potato masher at.